Author Archive: Emily Bacheller

From James: Today’s post is the second in a series of four articles on social media marketing – all part of a contest within TopRank Marketing for a chance to attend Social Media Marketing World. Watch for the next post in the series on how to create impact with Instagram.

According to a 2012 Nielsen Social Media Report, nearly half of all U.S. consumers use social media to ask questions, report satisfaction, or to complain. That means that your customers will inevitably take to Facebook, Yelp, or Twitter to talk about your brand. Are you ready to field questions, comments, and criticisms from your customers on social media? Providing attentive customer service on social media sites doesn’t need to be stressful. Continue reading to learn how to respond to all kinds of comments from your customers – the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Marketers are increasingly faced with the challenge of proving the monetary value of social media marketing to the C-suite. Since social media is typically less of a sales tool and more of a means of nurturing new leads and maintaining a relationship with current customers, putting a price tag on social media can be a difficult thing to do.

The C-Suite will always be concerned with profit, so it’s imperative that marketers can either prove that social media is making their brand money by generating new leads or saving their brand money though customer retention.

Nick Robinson of SAP, Scott Gulbransen of DSI (formerly of H&R Block) and Lewis Bertolucci of Humana were all faced with the challenge of measuring social media ROI for their respective companies. At Social Media Marketing World, these big-brand marketers shared their secrets for measuring social media ROI in a session moderated by social ROI expert Nichole Kelly:

It appears that Ian Cleary is the King of Social Media tools. With new social media marketing tools coming on the market just about every day, Ian is one of the people you can rely on to test them all – from free to paid.

We’re thrilled that he shared his knowledge of tools with us at Social Media Marketing World this year and now I’ll share them with you.

Tools to Target the Right People

As Ian says, don’t sell hot dogs at a vegetarian conference. You have to know your audience before you can market to them successfully. The social tools below will help you identify and engage with active fans, influencers, and industry relevant people to follow.

Your customers are experiencing content shock. Every day there is more content being created than the day before, and it’s up to savvy content marketers to cut through the noise and increase the number of people who view and engage with their content.

After years of experience, Lee Odden has learned that co-creating content with influential people in your industry can give your brand the visibility that your content needs to succeed. Co-creating content can help you increase the content’s exposure, grow out your social following and increase your brand’s influence.

What if I told you that you could increase the reach of your social content by a factor of ten by utilizing a resource that you already have?

What resource is this, you ask? Your employees.

Jay Baer, CEO of Convince and Convert explains that when your employees are satisfied with their job, they become your biggest brand advocates. True advocacy is born from culture, not technology or marketing. Brand advocates, whether they are your customers or employees, appreciate and relate to the culture of your company.

Your employee’s happiness can also have a huge impact on your brand’s social media success. In fact, in 2012, 40 of the top companied to work for were also some of the most successful companies in social media.

Most businesses are aware of the importance of social media marketing, but the number of companies really succeeding at it represent just a drop in the ocean.

When you think about it, the world of social media is a lot like the ocean actually – constantly moving and evolving due to trends and feature updates. Those who really want to to succeed at social media marketing are like expert surfers, continuously swimming in the seas of change, riding the waves of trends, finding the best tools to keep their boards working well and keeping a close eye on the horizon for new best practices.